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Tall, Dark and Filthy Rich
Jill Monroe
Sassy heroines and irresistible heroes embark on sizzling sexual adventures as they play the game of modern love and lust. Expect fast paced reads with plenty of steamy encounters.A blast from the past! When tomboy private investigator Jessie Huell arrives as a guest on popular Atlanta chat show Just Between Us, she is unexpectedly reunited with her schoolgirl crush, producer Cole Crawford. Cole’s a multi-million dollar lottery winner, stunningly sexy…and bad, bad news for her!Now Cole and Jessie are doing just the kind of naughty things she swore she’d avoid. As each incredible second explodes by, Jessie finds herself in deep trouble. If she’s not careful she could find herself falling for him…Which means she’ll have to find the real dirt on Cole Crawford – because this man is too good to be true!
Six winners. Six fantasies.
SIX MILLION DOLLAR SECRETS…
Plain Jane Kurtz is going to use her winnings to discover
her inner vixen. But what’s it really going to cost her?
She Did a Bad, Bad Thing by Stephanie Bond Available from Mills & Boon® Blaze® in July 2008
* * *
New girl in town Nicole Reavis is on a journey to find
herself. But what else will she discover along the way?
Underneath It All by Lori Borrill Available from Mills & Boon® Blaze® in August 2008
* * *
Risk taker Eve Best is on the verge of having everything
she’s ever wanted. But can she take it?
The Naked Truth by Shannon Hollis Available from Mills & Boon® Blaze® in September 2008
* * *
Young, cocky Zach Haas loves his instant popularity,
especially with the women. But can he trust it?
For Lust or Money by Kate Hoffmann Available from Mills & Boon® Blaze® in October 2008
* * *
Solid, dependable Cole Crawford is ready to shake
things up. But how “shook up” is he prepared to handle?
Tall, Dark and FilthyRich by Jill Monroe Available from Mills & Boon® Blaze® in November 2008
* * *
Wild child Liza has always just wanted to belong.
But how far will she go to get it?
What She Really Wants for Christmas by Debbi Rawlins Available in the M&B™ collection Her Christmas Temptation in December 2008
JILL MONROE
makes her home in Oklahoma with her family. When not writing, she spends way too much time on the internet completing “research” or updating her blog. Even when writing, she’s thinking of ways to avoid cooking.
Dear Reader,
Have you ever thought about winning the lottery?
Yes? Me, too! Only about a billion times. I’ve played the “What if I won a million?” on many a boring road trip.
One thing that never figures into those dreams – the problems that would arise from that kind of notoriety and that kind of cash. Cole Crawford wasn’t expecting those difficulties either. Nor was he expecting the kind of delicious turmoil Jessie Huell would bring into his life.
Cole and Jessie’s story was a lot of fun to write. I even played the lottery a time or two to really get the research! OK, I probably would have played it anyway. That one hundred and twenty million powerball jackpot is a hard thing to resist. If I win, the pizza will be on me!
I’d love to hear from you. E-mail me at jill@ jillmonroebooks.com or visit me on the web at www.jillmonroe.com.
All my best,
Jill
TALL, DARK AND FILTHY RICH
BY
JILL MONROE
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Thanks to my husband and family.
I love you and treasure your support.
Special thanks to Gena Showalter – a great
dancer who’s taught me all her best moves.
Please note what DOES happen to those who
steal garden gnomes.
Thanks also to Sheila Fields, Donnell Epperson
and Betty Sanders, who always make me laugh
and are always there for me. And to
Kassia Krozser, whose name is always
on my dedication page.
To my friends Jennifer and Karen, who’ve put up
with a lot during this book. Thanks. I promise to
return to all sweetness and light shortly.
I also want to thank the other authors from the
MILLION DOLLAR SECRETS books and
Kathryn Lye. It was great fun working
with all of you.
1
“EVER THINK MAYBE YOU’RE in the wrong line of work?” Dana, the reporter from the Atlanta Daily News, asked in a bored tone as she flipped a Skittle into her mouth.
“No. Why?” Jessica Huell shrugged. So much for the great article the reporter planned to write about Atlanta’s Most Interesting Professionals. Clearly, Jessie’s execution of her current job was proving to be a dud, and she’d really hoped the exposure from the proffered feature in the newspaper would swing a little more business her way.
Movement caught her eye. “Wait, get down,” Jessie said, as she pushed Dana’s head below the dashboard.
Both women scrunched low, toward the floorboard of Jessie’s car, which was littered with sacks of fast food they’d eaten earlier that night.
Jessie listened. They’d cracked the windows for a little air and to hear the night sounds more easily. At two in the morning, this residential street in Atlanta was quiet. She easily heard the clap of high-heeled shoes on the sidewalk. The opening and closing of a car door. The turning of an engine.
After counting to ten, Jessie poked her head up over the steering wheel. The blue car. Bingo. She watched as it drove down the street, then turned left. She counted another ten seconds and then slowly took the same path.
Dana sat up in her seat and rubbed the muscles of her neck. “This wrecks that ‘female private investigators are cool’ thing I was going for.”
Good. Jessie curled her fingers around the steering wheel in satisfaction. Being an investigator could be dangerous and exciting, but when people were drawn to the job for those qualities, that’s when folks started getting hurt. Her job entailed hard work, long nights and little sleep. With “boring” thrown in to smooth out the rough edges. A whole lot of boring.
“Whew, I’m glad that’s over,” Dana said as she rummaged in her purse for something, obviously ready for her one night of undercover to be over. “I don’t know how much longer I could stand being in this car.”
“Well, we still have a ways to go.”
The reporter stopped applying her lip gloss. “Why? You already have the picture of him with the woman.”
Jessie dropped back farther from the car she was trailing. Even in a big city like Atlanta, a car closely following another would be suspicious after 2:00 a.m. “A picture tells only part of the story. We don’t know who the woman is. What her relationship is to Mr. Roberts.”
Dana scoffed. “She hugged him, then stayed in his home for over three hours. I don’t think she was the maid. Not with those shoes.”
Those were some pretty sexy stilettos. Not that Jessie was much of a shoe person. Not much call for high-heeled sling-backs in her line of work, in spite of the Hollywood image.
Smiling, she kept an eye on the sedan several car lengths ahead. They were back on side streets, where only an occasional streetlight or neon sign broke the darkness. They’d be hitting a residential neighborhood soon. She gave a silent plea that the car would lead her to a house with an address rather than to an apartment complex. Those were the worst. A lot of effort wasted on a dead end.
Yes! The owner of the nonmaid shoes was pulling into a paved driveway. Jessie held back, waiting for the woman to enter her home before driving past.
Then she slowly moved forward, looking as casual as she could. Just an insomniatic neighbor out for a drive. Or maybe a desperate mother hoping to get her baby to sleep. Whatever. Blending in. Appearing like someone who belonged there. That was her strength; she’d never been one to stand out. She hated flash, and unlike the reporter beside her, Jessie had never applied lip gloss in a moving vehicle. She wouldn’t even know how to take care of a highlight.
With a subtle glance at the number on the front of the house, Jessie was on her way.
“That was a little more fun. It was the closest we’ve come to getting caught,” Dana said, her voice slightly breathless.
“We weren’t anywhere near getting caught,” Jessie told her dryly. She was all for exaggeration, but not if it made her come across as less than professional.
“No need to get irritated. I just meant it was the first bit of excitement we’ve had since blondie showed up in the first place. When I still thought this night would be interesting,” Dana said with a wink. “What now?”
Dare she tell her? Jessie wondered. Dana was a reporter, after all. The woman dealt with facts. Hopefully.
Actually, Jessie herself should be delving only in facts. Conjecture shouldn’t be part of her professional world. But in the lonely hours after midnight, The Speculation Game was often the only thing that kept her awake. And interested. Maybe Dana was right; maybe she needed a different line of work.
Okay, she was losing it. She loved her job. Giving another woman the truth—that the man she was about to marry was a loser—was always good. Or even better, that the man she was about to commit a lifetime to, or at least the next several years to would be “on the level” with her. If only someone had been around to wake up Jessie before her own loser fiancé proved what a louse he was.
She glanced at her companion, whose laptop illuminated the front seat of the car. No, she probably shouldn’t tell Dana that on a stakeout she often dabbled in assumptions and bizarre guesses. But then, at nearly three in the morning, common sense was asleep.
“Right about now I start thinking about where she’s going.”
“What do you mean? We just saw her go into her house.” Dana stated, not bothering to look up from her typing.
“No, I mean, what does she plan to do with that stolen microchip he passed along to her?”
Dana stopped typing and gave Jessie an assessing look. “Stolen… I thought he was just some guy who doesn’t spend his Thursday nights with his girlfriend.”
Jessie put on her best mock-serious expression. “Oh, no. He may come across as a mild-mannered accountant who worked overtime during tax season to buy an engagement ring, but in reality he’s escaped from a faraway land. The secret agents from his country have found him.”
“The country of Fabricatia, perhaps?” Dana asked, her body language suggesting for the first time this evening that The Speculation Game was something she could get into.
“Exactly. And now he’s being stalked by that woman, but determined to keep his secrets safe.”
“I knew there was something suspicious about those pointy-toed sling-backs. Those were total spy shoes. He slipped her a fake chip, I know it.”
“But how long can he hold out?”
Dana laughed. “So, do you make up stories like this all evening?”
“Beats the reality of the job.”
“No question about that. I was really hoping some irate couple caught in a clandestine tryst might come after you with a gun. Would have made this story a lot more interesting.”
“Sorry I couldn’t accommodate.”
“That was before I knew you. Now I don’t want you to get shot at. You can stay with your boring job,” Dana said with a smile.
Jessie pulled her car into the parking lot of an all-night diner. “Then you’re going to love this next part. You’re about to witness the glamorous excitement of plugging this address into the database. Hopefully we’ll make a quick hit.”
